The Interactive Connectivity Establishment Protocol (“ICE”) includes an extension that is known as “Trickle Ice”. The Trickle Ice extension is discussed in the Oct. 10, 2012 network working group draft memo entitled “Trickle Ice: Incremental Provisioning of Candidates for the Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) Protocol”. Subsequent versions of this memo are dated Jan. 28, 2013 and Mar. 11, 2013. These memos were published on the internet by the internet engineering task force (“IETF”). The entirety of all three of these memos is incorporated by reference herein.
ICE protocol has been described in RFC 6336, which is entitled “IANA Registry for Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE) Options and was published by the IETF on July 2011 and RCF 5245, which is entitled Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE): A Protocol for Network Address Translator (NAT) Traversal for Offer/Answer Protocols and was published by IETF in April of 2010. The entirety of RFC 6336 and RFC 5245 is incorporated by reference herein.
The Trickle Ice extension is configured to permit an ICE agent to send and receive candidates incrementally rather than exchanging complete lists so that ICE agents can begin connectivity checks while they are still gathering candidates so that an ICE agent is able to exchange host candidates as soon as a session has been initiated.
But, the use of Trickle Ice to permit improved connectivity can create different issues for communication networks. For instance, legacy devices that may function in accordance with Session Initiation Protocol (“SIP”) may be unable to be utilized or may cause unforeseen delays or connectivity problems for more modern devices that support use of the Trickle Ice extension. Such issues pose cost constraints and reliability constraints on communication systems and could prevent use of the Trickle Ice extension as an economically feasible solution for some communication systems. I have determined that a new method and apparatus is needed to address such issues to permit networks to use legacy devices in such a manner that communication sessions may be more quickly established.